The Darkus Duellist
by DragonMasterKnight626
Summary: This story takes place right after Alice is revealed as masquerade but when she leaves though the portal but drops her in middle of the fight between Astral world and Barian world with her new friend Astral can Alice pick up Duel Monsters fast enough to help him fight the Barian's.
1. Chapter 1

The Darkus Duellist

(Disclaimer: the usual own nothing, nothing at all on with the show. This story takes place right after Alice is revealed as masquerade but when she leaves though the portal but drops her in middle of the fight between Astral world and Barian world with her new friend Astral can Alice pick up Duel Monsters fast enough to help him fight the Barian's.)

Chapter 1: Chance Encounter

As the dust settled from the shocking revelation of Alice being masquerade and the sudden appearance of Hal-G as she ran away from friends for betraying them however when she ran she ended up in strange city unknown to her. "Where am I" she said to herself "when she noticed a strange device on her arm with some sort of cards in it "what is this stuff" before her questions were answered something else came to her mind 'if I can't go home where can go from here and what do I do' before she could react a boy knocked into her "watch where you're going loser" he said before she said "I'm sorry I was in your way" noticing her duel disk he said "well if you want to make up to me how about a duel where loser puts their decks up for grabs" unsure how to react I just said "yes" when I saw the boy back up and turn on his duel disk she copied what he did and put the duel disk on when he said "duel" looking down at the duel disk she saw her opponents name Shark.

Turn 1: Shark-4000LP

"All right I summon Big Jaws in attack mode" monster 1800ATK level 3 "and place one card face down your up"

Turn 2: Alice-4000LP

'oh what now I can't do this alone, no don't panic, okay so the these cards are clearly monsters, and these look to be some sort of a ability cards and traps, so his monster has an attack number so if I play this with more attack'

"Okay I summon skilled dark magician in attack mode" monster 1900ATK level 4 "and I'll attack your monster"

Skilled dark magician destroys Big Jaws Shark loses 100LP

"I'll place one card face down and with that I end my turn"

Turn 3: Shark-3900LP

"not so bad, but not enough to even make a difference, first I'm gonna summon skull kraken in attack mode" ATK 200 LEVEL 3 "then use my face down, surface to bring back my water attribute monster Big Jaws in attack mode" monster 1800ATK level 3

"the time has come" a voice called as she found herself somewhere entirely new to her "whoever unlocks this will gain a great power, but at a terrible cost" the voice called "power, cost, what is this" she said as she looked at what could only be described as a door of some kind "do you have the courage to unlock it" the door said, as she reached out a bright light appeared in her hand, as it dissipated and she found herself holding what she assumed was the key to the door, with the key in hand she went to unlock the door, as she did she was flung back as the door opened and engulfed in share of cards "what's going on" she said as the cards disbursed she found herself back in reality "huh", shark about to make a move

"now I'm gonna use them to XYZ summon … hmmm aggggggggga" he started to sheik as a dark aura engulfed him "number 17 leviathan dragon be born" ATK 2000 Rank 3 "by using one overlay unit leviathan dragon gains 500 ATK points "attack her monster with shock steam blast" he said

Leviathan dragon destroys skilled dark magician Alice loses 600LP

With the attack Alice was flung back "that was intense" she said experiencing damage for the first time "Rise" a voice said, as she looked over she saw a shining figure "rise up" he repeated "who are you" she asked shocked at the new person "um mister, I asked you question" she said "astral" he said turning to shark "is that your name" she said in response "yes if I recall correctly" he said continuing the conversation "what do you mean if you recall" she asked "I do not now who I am, and cannot seem to remember anything else" with this said, she responded with "well I'd like to help in any way I can, but I kinda have to deal with this right now she said turning her attention back to the dual

"With this number I can annihilate you, but for now I'll end my turn with a face down"

Turn 4: Alice 3400LP

"He appears to be angry" Astral stated "yeah your right, but that dragon is going to be our problem in the duel" she said, with this Astral's gaze fell upon the dragon "wait I recognise that word" he said before I asked "wait what do you know about Duelling" "plenty, wait that's it yes I duel" he said, with this Alice said "this is kinda my first duel" "very well I will assist you then, first draw" he said "right" with that said she went a drew a card "first summon Magician's Valkyria then use monster reborn to summon skilled dark magician back" he said with I following instructions "now that you have two level for monsters it's time" with this I thought about what shark did "alright I overlay my Magician's Valkyria and skilled dark magician to XYZ summon" she took the monster out her deck to get her first look at it "number 39 utopia" ATK 2500 Rank 4 'I've got it' "then I activate dark pendant for utopia to gain 500 ATK" Utopia ATK 3000 "now attack Leviathan dragon" with this the attack was under way "now I activate Utopia's special ability to negate it's attack, but that's not all because I activate double or nothing so that it can attack again with double the attack" Utopia ATK 6000

Utopia destroys Leviathan dragon shark loses 3500LP

With this astral look over to I "a good move for your first Duel" he said "well I'm not finished yet, now I activate Hinotama to deal you 500 points of damage"

Shark 400LP – 500LP = 0 I victor

Alice Win

As the duel ended Astral claimed the Number from shark 'I see so by collecting the number cards I can regain my lost memories' with this I was recovering from the shock of the situation with her cloths not returning to normal, it was just one thing after another "you know for noob, you're not that bad a duellist" shark said "don't worry about that whole bet thing it was just nice to have a game" I said "Hm well then see you round" he said walking off.

After the duel Astral explained his understanding of the number cards and himself "so I need to help you get your memoires back, by winning duels and collecting number cards, but if I lose you'll disappear forever" she summed up what he said "yes that is correct" he replied "I'm not sure if you should trust me to do this" by this time and the calming down I was thinking more about the whole her being masquerade 'I mean after what I did to Shun, Dan and the others' "non-sense you are a brilliant duellist, having you as a partner would be efficient, that last combo you preformed was done without my input despite that it was a very effective move" Astral said 'I should help at least to make up for the things I did as masquerade' with new goals I said "I'll do my best to help you".

I was walking around town as Astral figured out how to enter the golden key 'I said I was going to help Astral but even if I didn't I'd still be stuck here, I don't even have anywhere to live, no I've got to think about' she thought for a few minutes passing a couple of students in the meantime 'wait school, I've still got to go to that, I should enrol somewhere' with that thought I headed to an information centre to get info on a school 'if I can find a school that provides housing for its students that should solve that problem' from their she found a school that suited her needs Heartland Academy.

Soon after I found herself in a meeting with the principle "I see so you're a transfer form Russia, I also see you're a second year Miss Gehabich, well we will get you settled in to our student dorms without a problem" the principle of the Heartland Academy stated "so is there any sort of part time job I can get" she asked " there a shared kitchen with raw ingredients that the schools buys in bulk for the use students so if you know how to cook don't worry about that, your school uniform will be provided for you and" he continued while showing I to her dorm 'I'm kinda of glad I found a coat to go over this outfit' she thought came out of her own head when they arrived "this building complex is owned by the school and for student housing because of the amount of space you don't have to have a roommate in your dorm but most students do anyway, it gives them company but this is where I will leave you for now have a nice day Miss Gehabich" he said as he handed over the key, when he left I clasped it had been a long day.

A/N: first a few things I wanted to say, 1 the deck Alice is using is a dark Magician style deck with numbers and Hydranoid (monster details below) 2 I also had to set up Alice with a place to live, and that was the only thing I could think of to set one up.

Details on Hydranoid will stay constant

Hydranoid: type dragon normal monster level 4 ATK 2000 DEF 1500 no effect

Duel Hydranoid: type dragon fusion monster Level 8 ATK 3000 DEF 2250 fusion materials 2 Hydranoid's effect, once per turn by discarding one card destroy one monster, cannot attack directly the turn this effect is activated

Alpha Hydranoid: type dragon fusion monster Level 12 ATK 4000 DEF 3000 fusion materials 3 Hydranoid's or Hydranoid + Duel Hydranoid effect, once per turn by discarding a lcard you can destroy all monsters on the field expect this card, this monster can lower its ATK 2500 in exchange this card cannot be effected by spell, trap or monster effect.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2: School days

When Alice woke up she was back in her normal clothes but she had busy day ahead, "so what is this school" Astral asked "a school is a place you go to learn, say you wanted to learn more about this worlds history, there is a class you go to in school where you learn about it" Alice explained "observation 1 humans go to a place called school to learn things, so would anyone their know about me and where I'm from" he questioned "well I'm not sure they would, thinking about it can other people even see you" she wondered "I mean when you appeared nobody else even noticed you" she reasoned "yes, it does appear that way" Astral said "well it looks like we should get going" Alice said before they left for class

It wasn't long after that Alice arrived in class "Quiet down, class we have a new transfer, this is Alice Gehabich please make her feel welcomed and Alice I'm Mr. Kay your homeroom, math, IT teacher, alright then go find an empty seat and we'll begin" Alice then moved to a seat as class began

When Class end Alice noticed most students leaving "I wonder where they're going" Alice said aloud "duel period, it's were the students are free duel or study before going home or just go home" Shark said "Shark" Alice said shocked "you didn't know I went here, now you better get going if you want a chance to duel someone" he said before starting to walk off "wait why are you being nice to me" she asked, to this Shark was a bit stunned 'what type of guy do I come off as' "because you seem nice, besides I want you to improve" he said "huh" was Alice replied "that duel yesterday, you were pretty good for a newbie so I would like to duel you again but not right now, for now I want you to be a better duellist the next time we go head to head, well I'll see you later" Shark said making his exit.

Alice spent the period watching other students duel 'okay I think I get how the game works' she was thinking, before taking a look thought her deck "all and all well balanced with different options for wining" Astral said "oh hi Astral, where have you been" she asked him "the golden key, it really is a peculiar place" he said as she pulled the key out of her pocket "you should be careful not lose that" Astral said making Alice examine the key more "there's a hole, I could put some thread through it to wear it" Alice stated "if that would reduce the risk of lousing then I recommend doing it" Astral said stressing the importance "okay I'll do it when we get back" she said

After the school day Alice was taking a short walk back to the dorm when the lights around the streets and other electronics started to go haywire "what's going on" Alice said "I don't know is this normal" Astral asked "no not really" she said as they quickened their pace back to the dorm "what was that" Alice wondered

The rest of the day went by pretty fast as Astral found himself inside the golden puzzled by what connection it had to him and how Alice acquired it, when Astral left the golden key he expect Alice to be sleeping, but she wasn't

(3 hours earlier)

When Astral had gone back inside the golden key Alice thought it was time to go to sleep but she couldn't, the full effect of what she done as masquerade finally was able to fully set in 'how could I do it, all those horrible things' she thought as the memories of being masquerade went through her mind as she started to cry in to the pillow for hours

"I'm a horrible person, I don't deserve to be happy, have friends or anything, and trash like me shouldn't even go on living" Astral found Alice talking to herself while crying into a pillow 'she appears distressed, however I do not know the cause, perhaps I should let her be for now and find out how to improve her mood' Astral thought to himself before disappearing back into the key before she could notice him.

The next morning Alice went to school like the morning before but when she arrived in class she noticed error on all the electronics "sorry class but because the yesterday's system hiccup our systems are offline today" Mr. Kay said "since we can't do any math how about a duel tournament" someone in class suggested "well it's not on the curriculum both sure" Mr. kay said as the class started duelling each other, at this point Alice sat out to make sure that she knew everything about the game, When class was over Alice headed to library, since the system got restored a little after class, and there were some books Alice needed to check out

Alice was so wrapped up in her work that when she had finished it was late in the afternoon and Alice was ready to leave, when she noticed that another student had entered the library she was about to leave when the student cried out, "ahh I didn't mean to launch anything" he said "what happened" Alice asked him startling him even more "you see, all those system malfunctions yesterday were caused by a hacker, so I was trying to investigate, when I just accidently launched the virus" he said going back to the computer "what are you doing" Alice asked "I'm tracking the source of the root kit if I can pin point the location this computer was accessed from then we can find we're the criminal is, I got it" he said getting up "I'll go with you" Alice said and boy thanked her, and the two left for the location

The two were nearly to the location when the boy said "I'm Caswell by the way, a first year" as they going to the location "I'm Alice" she said before Caswell looked at her "Alice, as in the Alice that beat Shark the other day" he said "yeah that was me" Alice replied as the reached their destination that looked to be a giant tower

"he should be in here" Caswell said as they entered "so finally put the pieces together" Mr. Kay said from the centre of the tower "what Mr. Kay" Alice said in disbelief "don't you get it, he's the criminal behind the virus" Caswell stated "that's one way to put it, I am glad you could follow the clues, I wanted you to be here when the virus went, well viral" Mr. Kay said before taking off his glasses and it was then Alice and Astral saw the number 34 on Mr. Kay's neck "a number" Alice said 'so that's it' before Astral spoke "you must duel him, the number has consumed his spirt in order to reason with him, is to break the numbers hold" with this Alice nodded "alright Mr. Kay I challenge you to a duel and if I win you stop the virus" with this Mr. Kay said "you want to do duel me, very well Alice I'm happy to oblige, but why do you think you can defeat me" with this Alice said "because I have to" after saying that a purple light engulfed Alice changing her clothes from the school uniform to masquerade's outfit (without the mask) and her hair turning blond (but keeping its shape) a purple tattoo going over her eye and with the final step her duel disk appearing on her arm "lets duel" they both said

Turn 1: Mr. Kay 4000LP

"I believe the first move is mine, I draw and place a monster in face down in defence mode"

Turn 2: Alice 4000LP

"Alright I summon Silent Magician level 4 in Attack mode" level 4 ATK 1000 "next I place one card face down and end my turn"

Turn 3: Mr. Kay 4000LP

"It's my turn I draw"

"Not so fast when you draw a card my Silent Magician gains 500 ATK points" Alice said

"Alright first I summon crash bug Y, with that done I activate the crash bug road spell card from my hand, now we each chose a level four or below monster then we each summon a monster in our hand with the same level, I chose crash bug Z"

"My Silent Magician is a level four monster and the only monster I have in my hand with that level is my chocolate magician girl" Alice said "right" astral said be before Alice she summoned chocolate magician girl level 4 ATK 1600

"Don't you see you've set me up for victory I flip summon crash bug x, now I overlay my three crash bugs and summon number 34 terror-byte" Rank 4 DEF 2900 "I'm activating terror-byte's special ability to take control of one of your monsters, so I'm taking your chocolate magician girl level 4 ATK 1600 and attacking you with it"

Chocolate magician girl attacks Silent Magician loss 100LP

"Your defeat is coming, but for now I place one card face down and end my turn"

Turn 4: Alice 3900LP

"ok I draw, first I activate dark magical curtain, by using this card and cutting my life points in half I can summon Dark magician" level 7 AKT 2500 – Alice 1950 LP "and now summon Gagaga magician, I can now activate Gagaga magician's special ability to change his level to seven and now I can tribute my Gagaga magician and Dark magician to special summon the Sorcerer of Dark Magic" level 9 ATK 3200 "now I place two cards face down and end my turn" "since your Sorcerer of Dark Magic isn't a number card it can't destroy terror-byte, however since it is now the most powerful card on the field it may have been wroth summoning" Astral said

Turn 5: Mr. Kay 4000LP

"I activate terror-byte's ability to take control of your Chocolate magician girl again but this time will be different, because I'm activating these two continuous spells, now with infected mail once a turn any level 4 or below monster on my field can attack you directly but after it attacks its destroyed and since its on my field I'll attack you with your Chocolate magician girl"

"Activate your trap card" Astral told Alice "right, activate negate attack, now your attack is stopped and the battle phase is over"

'Since the attack didn't go through crackling doesn't activate, not that that matters now one direct attack and she's done' Mr. Kay thought before say "alright then I end my turn with a face down"

Turn 6: Alice 1950LP

Alice was about to take her turn when the room started to rise "what's happening now" Alice said as reached the top "from up here will have the best view in the city to see the effects of the bug" Mr. Kay said

"it's our turn, but we need to end this quickly if your teacher gets out a monster with 2000 ATK or more that's level 4, it's over" Astral said "then was it a bad idea to use dark curtain" Alice asked "no it was a good set up, and we didn't have those continuous spell cards to worry about at the time, but we need a way to attack" he finished "alright I draw, perfect, alright I play monster reborn to bring silent magician back from my graveyard, now I overlay my silent magician and Chocolate magician girl to XYZ summon Number 39: Utopia" Utopia 39 Rank 4 ATK 2500 "I activate dark pendant and equip it to utopia for a gain of 500 ATK" Utopia ATK 3000 "now utopia attack terror-byte"

Utopia destroys terror-byte, no damage

"Now I activate my trap, magician's circle with this card I can summon a spell caster type monster with 2000 or lower ATK, so I summon the dark magician girl, now my dark magician girl and Sorcerer of Dark Magic Attacks you directly"

Dark Magician girl and Sorcerer of Dark Magic combined ATK 5200

Mr. Kay 4000LP – 5200LP = 0LP

Alice win

With the duel won Astral claimed the number card and a part of his memory with it, "Mr Kay? Mr Kay? Wake up!" Alice said as Mr. Kay groggily comes to, sitting on the floor back to his usual self, "What're... all you guys doing here" Mr. Kay said "Hurry! You said you'd stop the viral countdown" Caswell said "The viral countdown... I can't. The viral release doesn't have a cancellation code" Mr. Kay said with less than 50 seconds left on the clock Alice and Caswell started to panic "Aah! We're doomed! It's all over" caswell said, but as the clock ran out the city was quiet what're you guys shouting about over here" Mr. Kay asked and Alice answered him a bit unsure "Your virus weren't you trying to crash the city's systems and cause panic and chaos" with this Mr. Kay is a little shocked and said "Why would you think I'd do something like that… I'll admit that during my preparations I accidentally caused a little trouble, but..." he was a little hesitant to continue "so what were you doing" Alice asked her teacher "well you see I was looking at the patterns in the city's night lights, and I noticed that they seemed to be forming an incredibly complex matrix code. With my duel gazer, I scanned the pattern, and realized it was just one optical fragment away from being and exact replica of the Crashbug Q-code! And I realized, the museum's dome isn't normally lit up at night, if you use your duel gazer, you could see it" he explained, and with this Alice turned to look at the sky where she saw the Crashbug under the full moon Crashbug throwing its bombs, filling the sky with holographic fireworks. "so all of this was trying to get that to appear" she reasoned "yes, sorry if I caused you both too much trouble, but look at Crashbug's card description" he said offering Alice, as she read the card "Crashbug is an electric spirit that eats the bugs in our lives. Sadness, doubt, frustration no bug is too big for Crashbug, If you see Crashbug on the night of a full moon, it brings you good luck" as Alice finished caswell said "don't you get it, yet, In the end, Mister Kay just wanted everyone to have good luck" he said as the three marvelled at the sight Astral was thinking 'observation number two, Number cards affect people they change them, they seem to amplify their individual wants and desires, almost to the point they take over... I need to remember that' he thought

After that they all returned to their homes and Astral didn't know why but for that night Alice slept soundly, without waking up once.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3: flipping out

Another day of School came and Alice was getting use to her new environment when a kid runs up to Alice and says "Hehehehey, Alice, how's it goin', pal" and with this Alice said "Who are you" the kid was small but wore a first year uniform like Caswell "The name is Flip' the new identified Flip said before continuing "And I take quite a bit of pride in that name, cause I believe everything has a flip side, My right has my left; my front, my back. My frowny face has my smiley face! See… Pleased to meetcha" he finished to which Alice replied "it's nice to meet you flip" flip then pulled out a card "Oh- before I forget, I have a little something forya Alice, It's an *Xyz* monster- Baby Tiragon" flip said "And you're giving it to me" she asked/said "Yep! For takin' down that bully Shark! Go on, don't be shy, take it. It can be a symbol of our new friendship" he said "Symbol of friendship, how could I refuse" Alice said as she took the card 'someone wants to be my friend' she thought sombrely plus before looking at it and thinking 'it's so cute' on a more positive note "well Alice I got to head to class for now, but I'll see you later" Flip said running off 'what is this dark aura I'm feeling, hmm' Astral thought while Alice headed for class

When Alice finished class she was greeted by Flip "hey Alice do you want to go to the mall with me" he asked "sure it sounds like fun" she said as the left for the mall "so Flip is shark really that bad a person, he seems pretty nice to me" Alice said as they were walking "I can see how you would think that with how Shark's been acting lately, fact of the matter is that he's been different ever since you beat him, a word most people use is not nice because Shark doesn't do nice but less mean" Flip said 'I suppose that's Sharks flip side but for now let's focus on the new girl' he thought before saying "that's why I think your awesome, not only did you beat the school bully, but since then he hasn't bulled anyone" Alice did feel a bit flustered at the complement

When they got to the mall Flip knowing Alice was an exchange student and as such didn't know her way around (earning her trust), while Alice took in the environment as much as she didn't want to admit it she hadn't really gone out much since getting here, after a full walk around the two sat on a bench "thank you for showing me around Flip and you didn't need to waste your time with me" Alice said "Like I said before I think your awesome. The way you beat shark that was one of the best duels ever" he said flattering her again "Wow, really...Thanks" she said before he asked "By the way, what was that card that you used to take down Shark? You know, uh..." getting ahead of him Alice said "You mean Utopia" with this flip got off the bench leaving his back to Alice "Huh Oh, right that was it" he said as he circled the bench, when he was behind Alice he stuck something on her back passing it off with a friendly comment "I'm your friend aren't I" he said making his way back around, with this Alice said "I would like to think so" with this flip asked "hey since we're friends how about a friendly duel" he said with a smile 'come to think of it I've never actual duelled anyone in a friendly environment' Alice thought before saying "sure, why not" with that she got up from the bench "I have a bad feeling about this duel. I think you should pass" Astral said unsure about Flip "why I mean there's nothing at stake, no consequences for losing" she said while Flip was confused at who she was taking to, "very well, but do try to win" Astral said 'he is suspicious, but as long as Alice wins their shouldn't be a problem' and with that thought Alice said "right" "Uhh, are you takin' to me" Flip asked "no just, ha ha ha" she tried laughing it off 'I got watch taking to astral around others' but with that done the duel started

Turn 1: Flip 4000LP

"I'll go first, if it's okay! Here goes draw; I place a monster face down in defence mode, that's it for this turn"

Turn 2: Alice 4000LP

"I draw, I summon Magician's Valkyria in ATK mode" ATK 1600 level 4 "and now I can tribute Magician's Valkyria and special summon Silent magician and it gains 500 ATK for each card in my hand" ATK 3000 Level 4 'I don't know what his face down is so I might take damage, but if I can take it down I can go for a direct strike' "now I play monster reborn to bring back my Magician's Valkyria" Silent magician ATK 2500 "now my Silent magician attacks your face down"

'I was hopping she'd go with this aggressive approach' he thought with a smirk "Porcupine Fish, appear" Porcupine Fish ATK 200 Level 1 "Flip effect, activate"

"Flip effect, well I guess that fits" Alice said

"Porcupine Fish's flip effect means you now take four hundred points of damage"

Silent magician destroyers Porcupine Fish, Flip no damage, Alice 3600LP

"Well played, but I expected no less! Still- I took your away life points ,yaahaa" he said happily jumping up and down

'He sure seems happy, maybe this is what the game is about, it doesn't even matter if I win, but I did say I would try' Alice thought while Astral had his own thoughts 'so he is a flip effect monster user' "now Magician's Valkyria attacks you directly"

Turn 3" Flip: 3400

"Alright then my turn, I play a monster face down in defence mode and two cards face down"

Turn 4: Alice 3600LP

'okay with my next draw Silent magician attack points should return to 3000, but given that put two cards face down, he might want to destroy it' Alice thought before taking her turn "I draw, and now I'll play two cards face down" 'sure it may weaken my silent magician, but my two face down cards should help if one of the cards he has damages my hand' "okay, now Silent magician attack his face down monster"

"with that attack Chew-Bone effect activates allowing me to summon three Chew-Bone Jr's to your field"

"My field"

Silent magician destroys Chew-Bone, no damage

'should I still attack with Magician's Valkyria, he still has those two face down cards so'

"so what do you think of that awesome summoning move three monsters at once"

"yeah but you summoned them to my field"

"what, oh no I read the effect wrong"

"okay I end my …."

"wait aren't' you going to summon your XYZ monster, you know because of the summoning mistake I made"

'he does have a point with this I could summon, wait', "be honest you didn't make a mistake did you"

'Don't tell me she's on to me' "what do you mean"

"You purposely summoned these three to my field because you want me to play the card you gave me, so that's what I'll do, I overlay these three level 1 monsters in order to build the overlay network and XYZ summon Baby Tiragon" Rank 1 ATK 900

"you sap, you fell for it, now I activate the trap Ultra C"

"What does that do"

"Well when you summon Baby Tiragon, I get to summon an XYZ a monster straight from your deck"

"My Deck"

"yes which means utopia is mine, summoning Baby Tiragon was the worst diction you made"

"flip purposefully set you up so that you would Baby Tiragon" Astral told her "so this whole duel was a setup"

"That's right and that note on your back tells you what we're playing for"

When Flip said that Alice found the note on her back and read it "If I lose this duel I agree to give Flip a card from my deck, so what card are we playing for"

"The same one I want, the card you used to beat shark with your utopia card"

"But utopia is a number card if you lose that then I will" Astral said "well I'll just have to win" Alice said

"Now utopia is mine" flip said as utopia was summoned to his field, Rank 4 ATK 2500 "now your best card is under my control and utopia stays with me as long as it's equipped with Ultra C, there's no way you can win, victory will be mine and so will your percusses utopia card

It was then Alice heard a gasp from Astral as he was engulfed by a share of blue light 'Astral, if I lose this duel then, no I won't lose' "not for long, I tribute Magician's Valkyria and Silent magician in order to summon my Dark Magician" level 7 ATK 2500

"Well I activate my trap car" Flip was about to say before Alice interrupted

"I activate my face down mystical space typhoon and it destroys your trap card, now I set one card face down and end my turn", 'since utopia's a number monster I can't use Dark Magician to destroy it, but I can use my face down next turn'

Turn 5: Flip LP 3400

"First I draw then I summon Flipangatan in ATK mode" Level 3 ATK 800 "now utopia attacks Dark Magician"

Utopia 2500 ATK attacks Dark Magician 2500 ATK, utopia is not destroyed

"Now my Flipangatan Attacks you directly"

"No because I activate the trap soul rope, see when you destroyed my Dark Magician this card lets me summon a monster from my deck that's level 4 or below for the mere cost of 1000 life points so I summon Skilled Dark Magician in attack mode" monster 1900 ATK level 4

Skilled Dark Magician destroys Flipangatan 1100 damage

Flip 2700 LP

"well it doesn't matter I'll still win"

"I don't get you flip why are being so mean"

"I'm not mean, the world is"

"What"

"And I learned it the hard way, Alice, Ya see I wasn't *always* like this! I was once a sap like you"

"Huh"

" It was way back when I first entered the Duel Monsters world"

(Flashback)

In a park somewhere, several older boys surround a younger one. The one speaking has shoulder-length red hair, a red shirt, and black shorts. "Hey Flip We heard you've started dueling. Would you mind teaching us" he asked a young Flip "I'd be glad to" he said and was given an answer "So what're you putting up" the Young Flip responded "Hmm? Whadda you mean put up" the boy behind Flip who speaks next has a tan cap, blue hair, a brown jacket and jeans "He means, which card. The winner of the duel gets a card from the loser" to which the Young Flip was unsure about "Uh- I dunno" he said before the one of them turns back to Flip "But'cha do know way more about duelling than us, so there's no way you're gonna lose" With another responding "Totally, Flip. You've really got nothing to worry about"

(Flash back end)

"But they were lying I had plenty to worry about, They knew how to duel, They were nice to face but mean behind my back, That's when I realized that there was always something going on, on the flip side, *that's when I decided, I would learn to become the master of the flip side, And so it began! The more I studied the way of the flip side, the more I learned, and It applied to everything And I took advantage! If my enemies were pretending to be nice but were truly mean, I would pretend to be fair but would truly cheat, and it worked, I got all my cards back- and something I didn't see coming Respect. Soon, I developed all sorts of different strategies to get what I wanted with my 'flip side' method, And without fail, it always worked I won at everything, including duels, where winning matters the most"

"that's sad story... Flip"

"enough talk it's your turn so take it"

Turn 6: Alice 2600LP

"alright it's my turn first I draw" 'perfect' "next I activate the trap card dark renewal, you see this card takes a monster from my side of the field and yours and tributes them to summon, my Dark Magician from the graveyard, so by sending my Skilled Dark Magician and utopia to the gave yard my Dark Magician returns" and Skilled Dark Magician followed by utopia to Alice's grave yard and the Dark Magician emerged

"What"

"now I activate the spell dedication though light and darkness, which lets me turn my Dark Magician into the Dark Magician of chaos" level 8 ATK 2800 "now my monster Attacks you directly"

Flip 2600LP - Dark Magician of chaos ATK 2800 = Flip 0

Alice win

"well done" Astral said having recovered after utopia was sent to the graveyard "you're okay" Alice said relived "yes now how do plan to deal with him" Astral said looking at a defeated Flip "I think I know" Alice said before she walked over to him "Hey Flip" Flip looks up, too surprised to scheme, when Alice crouches down near him, and gently offers him the Baby Tiragon card "I believe this belongs to you" she said " It did" he said in response "It does, take it you earned it, Flip. Just like you earned my respect the right way, by not cheating, it feels good right" she said as he thought about and responded with "...Yeah, I guess it sort of does" "Listen, all the respect you think you got by cheating, wasn't real at all. You were just tricking yourself" she said "Maybe... Or maybe this is all just a trick, and the flip side is you're gonna make me look like a big fool" he said suspicious with this Alice said Come on; that's impossible. I mean, there's no *way* could make *you* look foolish- not with those cool glasses you always were They're pretty hip" 'did I just say hip' she thought waiting for his response "... You think my glasses are... hip" he asked "Of course" Alice said as Flip is disarmed with surprise, He looks down and away with a small whimper, When he turns back to Yuma, he's crying; his watery eyes are gushing tears, "Alice that's the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me" he said as he tried to wipe his face on his sleeve, but still bursting with tears "Forget the flip side! Life can be pretty great when you just take something at face value" Flip sniffs, rubs his face on his sleeve, then smiles brightly at Alice, tears gone instantly "So I'm turning over a new leaf, right now! You keep the card" he said "Are you sure" she asked Flip nods, Tears showing at the corners of his eyes "like you said before, Flip, this card can be a symbol of our friendship" she said "Sounds good" Flip replied As Astral made his next observation 'observation three... Glasses are hip'.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4: Shun appears

About a week had passed since Alice and Astral's duel against flip with astral and Alice accruing two more numbers since then and Astral still remained silent about Alice's sleeping habits, that had continued over the week despite having one good night after the duel with Mr Kay, she had returned to crying at night and Astral still didn't have a way to bring it up, true Astral didn't have much experience with humans before meeting Alice (to his knowledge at least) but he did know that this was not something he could just bring up, he compared the situation to a face down card, not sure how to deal with the situation and whether he should deal with it or leave it face down till later, while Alice's mind was more on the number cards 'at the rate we've been going with collecting the number cards we should have them before the end of the year, but there is no way to constantly grantee running into someone with a number card, in fact as time goes on the rate of people with number cards will go down so is their anyway to track numbers'. With their thoughts occupying them the two continued walking without even taking in their surroundings, but that changed when the two noticed a bright light appeared in the sky and struck the ground "what is that" Alice said "I do not know but it appears to be coming from over there" Astral said as Alice looked to the location being the first place they duelled shark, before Alice could go Astral spoke up "wait" he said "why" "we do not know what is happening, you should go to class now that should allow the situation to play out and we can investigate later" Astral reasoned "okay then" Alice said.

(Meanwhile)

In the centre of the park a boy with raven hair in a purple jacket found himself waking up as he checked his person he noticed something or rather someone missing "Skyress, Skyress where are you" Shun asked "I'm here" Skyress replied, as shun looked to where the voice of his partner came from he found a card

Storm Skyress

Rank 4

2+ level 4 monsters

ATK 2100 DEF 2800

Effect: this card effects change based on the number of XYZ material it had when summoned

1 or more: You can remove on XYZ material from this card this card gain 300ATK and DEF (this effect can only be activated during your turn)

2 or more: this card cannot be targeted spells

3 or more: this card cannot be targeted traps

4 or more: this card cannot be targeted by monster effects

5: this card cannot be destroyed by battle

"What happened to you Skyress" Shun said as picked up her card "as my form has changed I assume we have entered a new world" at this Shun couldn't help but worry about the others 'if I got sent here, what happened to the others he thought' playing the events that he had just experienced

(Flashback)

Alice their friend was masquerade, the same one who sent Dan to the doom dimension and had been working towards the end of the world and then Hal-G appeared which resulted in Alice running from them, the Brawlers tried to stop her from leaving Dan and Shun being closest tried to stop her as she was engulfed in a bright light, before said light expanded and engulfed Shun then Dan

(End flashback)

'that's all I remember, did Hal G transport me and Dan here to get us out of the way while he took Alice' but with that Shun thought of something else "Dan, are you here" he called out, but got no response "I'm sorry Shun but I do not sense him nearby" Skyress said appearing in a sprit from "no way Skyress your" Shun started "yes it appears I can manifest myself in this from, but it does appear to have limits to it" she stated and continued "for instance I can't move far away from the card my physical form has become and you seem to be the only one that can see me" with this Shun figured he better find out what Skyress's new from was

The pair made their way to mall plaza where he saw two people pull out cards and activating a hand mounted mechanical device, without him even noticing a green tattoo appeared over his eye as the duel began, during which the two studied their moves and techniques trying to pick up the game "so instead of ability and gate cards, they have spell and trap cards" Shun said "do not forget about the effects each creature has and their summoning recruitments" Skyress said before a dark aura surrounded one of them "wait what's happening" Shun said

As they watched a number appeared on the guy's hand "I summon Number 70: Malevolent Sin, and now I'll use its special ability to banish your monster" with that done he then attacked his opponent directly and won "you didn't stand a chance" he said before leaving

"What was with that guy" shun asked as he checked on the lousing duellist to see if he was okay "it was that card, the number" Skyress said "number" Shun repeated and the guy he was checking on told him what he knew "oh number, their a type of XYZ monster not many people know about them, but there is something that most people agree on, they change whoever is using them and not in a good way, that guy just now he used to be a good friend of mine but ever since he got that card he changed" he said before passing out

A little while later after he had regained consciousness he told Shun more about the Number his friend had and its effects on him "I think I know how to duel, but those Numbers are of concern" shun said "yes they are" Skyress agreed as the two went back to where they had appeared earlier that day "so can you think of a way to get us back home" Shun asked "no I do not know why we are here in the first place" Skyress said "are you Concerned about Dan" she asked "yeah we both got caught up by that light so I'm unsure of what happened I can't help but be worried" he said before he heard foot prints

After school Alice and Astral headed towards the light that appeared "we may, even now be heading into danger so get ready" Astral said and with that Alice shifted into her duel gear, her hair shifting from its normal orange to a shade of blonde, as the two arrived they scanned the environment for anyone or anything that could be a result from what they saw that morning

As Shun was in his place hiding, trying to observe who was their when Skyress spoke "Shun remember that number card" with this Shun was a little confused as they spent a good part of the afternoon talking about them "what about it" he asked "I sense the person approaching has one, no wait they have at least four of them" she stated "four number cards, what could that do to a person" he said taking a look at the figure, when he caught sight of them "no way, masquerade" he said started

Alice and Astral were looking around when a voice called "no way, masquerade" they heard 'what does he mean masquerade' Astral thought recognising the name from something Alice said "wait that sounds like Shun" Alice said looking over to the direction where the voice came from

When Shun approached he saw Alice "Shun it is you" Alice said as she approached him "wait" he said and Alice stopped "I need to know if I can trust you" Shun said to her "so let's go you and me" he finished "alright" she said "Lets duel"

Turn 1: Shun-4000LP

"Alright first I summon RA's Disciple, who lets me special summon two more RA's Disciple's from my hand or deck" RA's Disciple Level 4 ATK 1100 DEF 600 "now I overlay my 3 RA's Disciple in order to XYZ summon Storm Skyress" Storm Skyress rank 4 ATK 2100 "with that I place two cards face down your up"

Turn 2: Alice-4000LP

'Shun has Skyress as a card, does that mean that I have Hydranoid in my deck' Alice thought before being interrupted by Astral "Alice do you know this person" he asked "yeah he's a friend of mine" she said hesitantly 'at least he was, before I' Astral noticed that Alice was starting to panic a bit, so he directed the conversation to the game "Alice it's your turn" with that Alice drew "alright I summon Gagaga magician" Gagaga magician Level 4 ATK 1500 "next I place two cards face down and end my turn"

Turn 3: Shun-4000LP

"Alright I draw, now I activate Skyress special abilities and Skyress gains 300 ATK points, now Skyress attack Gagaga magician" Shun said declaring his attack , "I activate the trap card half unbrake, now Gagaga magician can't be destroyed and I only take half the damage" Alice responded

Skyress 2400 Attacks Gagaga magician 1500 ATK, Alice losses 450LP

Turn 4: Alice-3550LP

'Alright then Gagaga magician is still on my field, all I need is one level 4 monster then I can summon utopia' Alice thought before drawing "Gagaga girl, you can use that to match Gagaga magician level to XYZ summon" Astral said "you know if I talk to you I look like an insane person" Alice said before making her move "alright I summon Gagaga girl in Attack mode" Gagaga girl Level 3 ATK 1000 " now by using her special ability she becomes the same level as Gagaga Magician, now I overlay Gagaga girl and Gagaga Magician"

'Alright here comes Hydranoid, Alice if you are really yourself then you could never use Hydranoid without feeling guilty, it's a low trick but the only way I can know your Alice and not masquerade for sure'

"I XYZ summon Number 39: Utopia" Utopia 39 Rank 4 ATK 2500

'Wait Alice has a number card'

"Now since I used Gagaga girl and Gagaga Magician to XYZ summon, Gagaga girls special ability reduces Skyress ATK to 0, now utopia ATK Skyress"

'Skyress won't be able to survive this'

"Now I use one overlay unit, to stop utopia's Attack"

'What's she doing?'

"Now I activate double or nothing, if a monster I control has its attack negated it can attack again but this time with double the attack"

Utopia ATK 5000 destroys Skyress ATK 0, Shun loses 5000LP

Shun 4000-0LP

Alice Win

'I don't know if Alice is herself or can even be trusted, but I should keep my eye on her' Shun thought before Alice's outfit shifted back to her school uniform, Shun then remembered something that had be bothering him "have you seen Dan, I've looked around but haven't seen him since I got here after the arena battle" Shun said "wait Shun the battle in the arena, how long has it been since then" Alice asked him "well it was this morning or yesterday, the time zone is a little off" Shun replied "Shun I got here a week ago" Alice told him, with this Shun took a minute to take in the information "if that's the case, does that mean that Dan might turn up later he was right next to me" Shun said "he is right Alice if your friend Shun arrived here as you did but much later despite leaving mere moments apart then this Dan he refers to may also arrive at a later time" Astral said 'oh right Shun can't see Astral' Alice thought "yes I think your right" Alice responded to Shun

Later the Shun and Alice were walking "so we're stuck here" Shun said "yes it seems like it" Alice said as the kept walking "where are we going" Shun asked "well I was thinking of going back to the dorm for dinner then turning in for the night" Alice said "what dorm" Shun asked "well without anyway back I figured I should enrol in a school for now and the one I chose has dorms for some of their students" Alice explained "Shun, Alice is right you may be here for a while it's important to have an education" Skyress said to Shun 'might as well' he thought

When they got back Alice showed Shun to her dorm then left , unknown to the knowledge that since Alice was just in the down the hall Astral was still in the room "Skyress I want your opinion on Alice" Shun said "while the rest of the battle brawlers were quick to forgive Alice you cannot forget that she is masquerade and may have been well aware of it and even if she didn't know the fact that she has a number card in her possession is suspicious, you should not trust her" she answered him then Shun said "I had no intension to trust her" he said before Alice walked in with two plates "there's a communal kitchen so I thought I would whip up something" she said putting down the plates, the two of them ate in relative silence while Astral observed Shun 'observation number 4, just because you trust people does not mean they trust you, sub observation 4 A, I trust Alice', When they finished Alice retired for the night


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter: 5: planning

(this a short chapter sorry)

The morning after Shun arrived; he registered at Heartland Academy and was now attending the same class as Alice, much to his disinterest he was more worried about Dan than anything else but still went through the day

"Shun are you alright you've been spacing out all day" Alice said after Astral pointed it out to her "I've been thinking about where Dan is" Shun said while the two of them were eating between classes "and" Alice replied curious "well if you and I turned up in the same spot maybe it's only a matter of time until Dan does too, maybe we should take turns staking it out" he said 'well I still have to help Astral collect number cards, but we still have no way to track them' Alice thought before responding "yeah that's a great idea" "okay then I'll head their today after class, then you take tomorrow, I can't imagine it will be more than week given the amount of difference between when you got here and when I got here, so I'll head over after class" Shun said as the two finished eating and returned to class

After class Shun headed to the park where he first arrived in this world to see if Dan would show up, what he didn't know is that someone was waiting for him, when he arrived he saw a man in a yellow suit "hello their my young friend" he man said "who are you" Shun asked "me I am Mr. Heartland, and I am the Mayor of Heartland City, and you are welcomed visitor to our fair world" he said "how did you know, I'm not from here" Shun asked suspicions "you see our whole world is in danger of being destroyed" he said as Shun was shocked at this "because of this a brilliant scientist named Dr. Faker, has been trying to find a way to save our world, he also detected your arrival here, so I've come here in person to personally ask you for help to save our world" he said Shun was a bit taken a back "of course as repayment Dr. Faker can send you back home" with this Shun consulted Skyress "it's a good deal Shun not only do you get to help save this world, you can also get home" with this Shun said "yes I will help, what do you need me to do" with this Heartland said "Number cards, their the evil force the enemy has sent to our world in order to stop them you need to collect these number cards, as a visitor of this world you should be immune to their evil effects, so I would like you to help us collect these numbers we already have good duellist's working to save us and we would like you to help" he finished 'I knew there was something about those cards that weren't right' "alright so how do I get them" he asked "you just need to beat the person who has one in a duel" he said 'so that's how Alice got one, she must have duelled someone who used the card' "alright then you know what's at stake in a few weeks we will be holding a duel tournament, will be in touch" he said before leaving

After the sun had set Shun headed back to the dorm he now shared with Alice, to find a full five course meal waiting for him "it was a slow afternoon so I thought why not" Alice said setting the table "you better not expect the same when you come back tomorrow, I'm not that good a cook" Shun said siting down and the two started to eat, a little into the meal Shun thought about talking to Alice about the number card she had acquired "hey I've been meaning to ask, how has your experience been meeting people with number cards" he said "Shun must have meet someone with a number card, the day he came here" Astral said 'that may be why he does not trust Alice' with this Alice said "yeah I've gone up agent three people with numbers" at this Shun nodded his theory confimed and the two finished their meal cleaned up and went to bed

The next day after School it was Alice's turn to stake out the park, it was seemed to be as quiet as the day before the sun nearly seting, that was until a flash of light crashed down to the ground revealing a boy with brown hair wearing a ripped yellow shirt, who seemed a little out of it "what happened where am I" he said "Dan" Alice said as she approached him "so this is Dan" Astral said "Alice, you're here but where is here" he said to which Alice explained all she knew, "so you, me and Mr hotshot himself seem to be stuck here without a way home, hmm all well let's just see how things turn out" he said waving it off, before getting exited "hey Alice how about you and me go at it, in this whole duel monsters game, I mean why not I got to learn this new game anyway so" Dan said "well maybe later but for now you should get some rest and we shouldn't keep Shun waiting" Alice said "she's right Daniel" Drago said "wait Drago, I almost forgot Drago you've turned into a card right, do I have you" he said checking his person when he found a full deck in the clip he used for his ability and gate cards "pew, I got you buddy" he said before taking a full look at Drago's card

Ultimate Dragonoid

Rank 4

3 level 4 monsters

ATK 2500 DEF 2100

Effect: this card can only leave the field though battle, if this card detaches one XYZ material it must detach another next turn if it can't then this card losses all its special abilities, if this card detaches one XYZ material it can not be destroyed in battle this turn and gain 500 ATK

"Cool buddy, looks like your pretty tough" he said to Drago "Dan are you ready" Alice asked him "yep, but come tomorrow you and I are gonna go at it right" he asked and Alice nodded as the two went back to the dorm where Shun was already a sleep in his room "you think he would stay up" Dan said "well I guess I'll just crash on the coach for now, good night" he said just collapsing on the coach, with this Alice turned in for the night herself


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6: fight at the museum

When Shun got up the next morning he was surprised to find Dan eating at the table with Alice "hey Shun" Dan causally said "really" Shun said more to himself than anyone "what did you expect of Dan" Skyress said "I don't know maybe a proper greeting" he said before sitting down and eating "so what day is it today" Dan asked in between stuffing his face "oh it's Friday why do you ask" Alice said "well you said I had to go to school could I wait before registering, I mean it's the end of the week and I still need some time to recover" Dan said with this Shun said "not a chance if I have to so do you" with this Alice just decided to stay out of it "now march down to the school and register" Shun said "but I'm a year off middle school" he said "then say you're a year older than you are" Shun said before thinking 'it worked for me' "alright fine, I'm going" Dan said before leaving "are you sure Dan will be alright" Alice said a bit concerned "he be fine, come on it's time we left to" Shun said as the two left

As the two were approaching the school a motor cycle pulled up in front of them "how's it going" the driver said, when Alice recognised the voice as Shark's "Shark" with this shark removed his helmet for a minute "of course, there's something I need to talk to you about" with that Shun said "I'll see you later" as he wanted to make sure Dan doesn't get into any trouble "so what is it Shark" Alice asked "listen, I'll get to the point I know this guy named Weasel his part of small gang, they once tried to get me to join but I told them I wasn't interested and to get lost, anyway the guy weasel comes to find me after the gangs leader's Scorch and Chills apparently changed after getting position of certain cards" Shark said "number cards" Alice said making the connections "yeah anyway apparently their planning something big tonight, that's why weasel sort me out he thinks they're going to pin it on him, I'm looking details now, but when I do find out what their planning, can I count on you for help" he asked "sure" Alice replied "alright after school hang around the mall I'll meet you their" he said before driving off leaving Alice to go to school

The school day was what Alice would call average day she had after all had gotten used to it, afterwards though the day took an interesting change as Dan meet back up with her and Shun "alright that's done now, Alice brawl… I mean duel" Dan said excited as Alice gave in "alright, but not here" she said before the three of them went to the mall

When at the mall Dan was hyped up for the new game "all right let's do this" Dan said as a red duel disk formed on his arm and a red mark appearing near his eye "this is awesome" he said looking at the duel disk and though the deck "right Drago" he asked "focus Daniel" Drago said getting Dan back on track "alright let's do this" he said, with that Alice shifted into that of duel gear with her hair going blond, Dan was little taken aback with how much Alice looked like masquerade "duel" she said as they started

Turn 1: Dan 4000LP

"Alright then first I summon blast magician in ATK mode" ATK 1400 level 4 "now since I have that on my field I can summon this monster" Inari Fire ATK 1500 level 4 "now, uh let's see, okay I play graceful charity now I draw 3 cards and discard 2, so I'm sending my Darkfire Soldier 1 and 2 to the graveyard, now by ah" Dan paused as he didn't remember what exactly was the next step "banish Daniel" Drago reminded him "right by banishing one of my Darkfire Soldier's from my graveyard then I can summon Inferno" ATK 1100 level 4" and now I overlay my three monster's in order to summon my friend Drago" Rank 4 ATK 2500 "I'm ready Daniel" with this Dan was done "alright your up and don't go easy"

Turn 2: Alice 4000LP

"Alright I draw" Alice said as drew and looked at the cards in her hand 'Hydranoid' she thought as she looked at her options "why are you hesitating, you can fuse those 3 cards in your hand" Astral said looking over at her 'but I can't use Hydranoid he was masquerades, but it is my only option, still I shouldn't, but Dan didn't want me to go easy on him, but I shouldn't, and he probably wants me to play Hydranoid' she continued her mind going back and forth between doing or not doing it "Alice play the card on the far right" Astral said after seeing how distraught this made her feel "all right I play Card Destruction, now both of us discard our entire hand and draw cards equal to the cards in our hand" she said 'I won't use Hydranoid no matter what' she said to herself as she looked at her new hand "alright I play one monster face down in defence mode and two cards face down"

Turn 3: Dan 4000LP

"Okay so I draw one card, now we'll use one overlay unit to boost your strength before you take down the face down Drago" he said as Drago blasted the face down card and reviled it to be the mystical elf

Drago destroys skilled dark magician no damage

'Daniel you should have summoned another monster to attack' Drago said to him before Dan said "sorry buddy I don't have any other monsters" with this Dan ended his turn

Turn 4: Alice 4000LP

"why are you so hesitant, it's not like it matters if we lose" Astral said 'he's right it doesn't matter if I win or not' Alice thought before responding to him "sorry I feel like every time I duel I'm putting my friend at risk if I lose but right now I only have to have fun, thanks for reminding me" with that her attention was drawn to her opponent

"Alice who are talking to" Dan asked

"me no one, my turn right" she said getting back to the game 'Drago's practically invincible until he runs out of overlay units so I need to delay tactics till then' Alice thought before moving "remember his dragon will have 4000 attack points before you can destroy it" Astral said as Alice moved "alright I play one card face down and a monster in defence mode"

Turn 5: Dan 4000LP

"Alright first I draw now Drago attack" he said as Drago attack

Drago destroys skilled white magician no damage

'Daniel you I told you to summon another monster' Drago scolded Dan "relax buddy I'm gonna summon one now" Dan replied 'but you can't attack again this turn' Drago said "I can't" Dan asked 'no' Drago replied "alright I guess I end my turn"

Turn 6: Alice 4000LP

"Alright I draw" Alice said thinking about how to continue 'Drago's effect is over but he still has 4000 attack points how can I deal with that' Alice thought looking over her hand 'the highest I have is black luster soldier but that's not enough' she thought before Astral interjected "your black luster soldier special ability allows it to destroy one monster in exchange for its attack" with this Alice was about to play when they were interrupted when a motor cycle drove between them

"Shark" Alice said as she recognised he was the person on the motor cycle "sorry to interrupt but I need to borrow your friend for a bit" Shark said to Dan and Shun "but we were in the middle of the match" Dan said "sorry but he did say he needed help earlier, we can pick this up some other time okay" Alice said as Dan was disappointed "alright" Dan said before switching "since Alice can't shun I challenge you" with this Shun was passive as he wasn't interested but wasn't against it either, it was at this point that shark though another helmet at Alice "get on" he said as she fixed the helmet approaching the bike "when are you getting back" he asked before getting out his duel disk for Dan's challenge "I don't know" Alice said getting on the bike "this might take a while, but don't worry I'll bring her back unharmed" Shark said to Shun "you might want to hold on" he said before driving off

Soon the cycle stopped arriving at a museum "alright they should be here any minute, how are you" he said glancing back at Alice who looked sick "I'm, walking home later okay" she said "it's already late but since it was your first time I guess it was rough ride" Shark said as two more cycles arrived their occupants getting off having a conversation "where's weasel the runt said he'd be here" they said before catching sight of Alice and Shark "sorry but visiting hours are over" Shark said as the two laughed him off "you may be tough but you're not nearly as tough as us and that little girl won't be much help against us" the taller one named Scorch said as his partner agreed with marks appearing on them "they both have number cards" Astral said as Alice had an idea "if you want to get in your gonna have go through us" she said with Scorch asking "ok what's the wager" with this Alice responded quick "if you win then my number card is yours, but if I win you walk away from this museum" with this the two looked at each other "okay then you're on" Chills said "lets duel" all four said starting

Turn 1: Scorch 4000LP

"What do you say we get this duel started, it's my turn I draw, I place a monster face down in defence mode, I end my turn by placing two cards face down" he said looking to his partner

Turn 2: Alice 4000LP

"it's apparent from the way these two are interacting they are used to duelling as a team" Astral said while Alice drew a card "your right it's obvious they duel like this a lot, they might have all sorts of tag strategies" Alice said looking at her hand 'okay I'm pretty sure I can't attack the first turn of a tag duel but either way I gonna play defensively' she thought looking over to Astral before Playing "first I summon one card face down in defence, then I'll play two card face down and end my turn"

Turn 2: Chilli's 4000LP

"it's my turn I draw I summon pompadour blizzardon" 1400 ATK Level 3 "then I place two cards face down and end my turn, once this train gets going it doesn't stop" he said while scorch added his two cents "your gonna wish you stayed in bed tonight girl"

Turn 4: Shark 4000LP

"well your gonna wish you stayed out of the water because I'm summoning big jaws" 1800 ATK level 3 "and that also lets me summon shark stickers" ATK 200 level 3 "you see I can bust out this monster whenever I summon a fish type monster to the field, I overlay big jaws and shark stickers, with these monsters I can build the overlay network and XYZ summon submersible carrier arrow shark" Rank 3 ATK 1900 "and now I activate it's special ability, once a turn by using an overlay unit Arrow shark can dish out 400 points of damage for every card in my hand"

Shark said as Astral commented on the move "an excellent move he is skirting around the rules by using a special ability to deal damage" while Alice was equally impressed as shark continued his move

"Since I have four cards in my hand I'm dealing 1600 damage to Scorch"

Scorch 4000LP – 1600LP = 2400LP

Only to be meet by Scorch's laughter "we were hoping you'd do that" he a said looking at Chilli's as he picked up saying "I activate my trap blizzard egg level 5, when a special ability does damage it allows the duellist who took damage to summon a level 5 monster from his hand but if he has no monster to summon then that duellist gets slammed for five hundred damage himself"

"So that mean's" Alice started as Astral filled it in "he is gambling on scorch having a level 5 monster in his hand which is quite a reckless the risk for him to take"

"Let's see, I summon level 5 baggy-pants lavasaurus" Level 5 ATK 2100 "and now to really heat things up, I activate my trap flame egg level 5, when I take damage from a special ability flame egg grants my team mate the power to summon one level 5 monster from his hand but if he doesn't have one to summon then he takes 500 points of damage" he said looking over to Chilli's "you're about to learn why nobody messes with us" he said summing a level 5 monster in defence mode DEF 2100

"this is not right, both of them had level 5 monsters in their hands" Astral though as Alice was also occupied in her own thoughts 'their teamwork's impeccable, they must have a dozen strategies worked out in advance and a way to tell what cards the other is holding, with that in mind there is an immediate problem with two level five monsters Scorch can XYZ summon his number next turn and with the risk they took Chilli's is probably going to be able to do it on his next turn as well, so when it's my turn I should go after Chilli' Alice thought as Shark had his own thoughts 'I smell a rat' while the Scorch activated his second face down "and now to end this I play flare level 5, thanks to this trap you take 500 points of damage for every level 5 monster on our fields we've two level 5 outs so we're talking a 1000 points of damage and it's all for you shark"

Shark 4000LP – 1000LP = 3000LP

"Shark are you okay" Alice asked as Shark got knocked down by the Shockwave

Shark answered as he got up "fine I place two cards facedown and end my turn"

Turn 5: Scorch 2400LP

"And now the fun really begins, first I switch my facedown monster to attack mode here comes Flamesaurus" Level 4 ATK 1800 "Flamesaurus special ability activates and that means it becomes level 5, now I can overlay Flamesaurus and baggy-pants lavasaurus with these two monsters I build the overlay network, I summon Number 61: Volcasaurus" Rank 5 ATK 2500 "nice going Scorch" Chills commented on his partner "I'm not done yet, I'm gonna make it know what happens to little chumps, I activate Volcasaurus special ability by using one overlay unit one of your monsters is destroyed and you take damage equal to its attack points, say bye bye to Arrow Shark and say hello to a world of hurt

Arrow Shark destroyed Shark Loses 1900LP

Shark: 3000LP – 1900LP = 1100LP

"Shark" Alice called out

"Be careful if we don't take out his Volcasaurus before his next turn he'll devastate any monster we try to attack with" Shark said as Scorch continued

"I wouldn't be too concerned about that I don't need it to take you out Shark because now Volcasaurus can attack you directly"

"I activate my trap Zeus's breath, this card can blow off your monsters attack"

"it looks like you lucked out this time, you may think your safe but one way this is ending you're going to lose and your number gonna be ours I place two cards facedown and end my turn"

Turn 6: Alice 4000LP

"Okay I draw, first I flip summon Gagaga Gardna" Level 4 ATK 1500 "next up I summon Skilled Dark Magician" Level 4 ATK 1900 "I'm not sure summoning Utopia would be a good idea in this scenario" Astral said while Alice replied "if I was only summoning Utopia you'd be right but I have something else in mind, I activate the trap Blooming of the Darkest Rose with this trap I can Summon a rose token to any field and for the every monster on the field I get another token, so with five monsters in total that's five token's three for me and two for shark" Alice said as the Five tokens were summoned Level 2 DEF 800 "now I overlay my 3 level 2 rose tokens to XYZ summon Number 45 Crumble Logos the Prophet of Demolition" Rank 2 ATK 2200

"oh look Chilli's a number card" scorch said mocking as Chilli's continued "whatever will we do scorch, oh wait I know I'll activate the Avalanche trap card and freeze your number in its tracks preventing it from ever being able to attack, how do you like that kid your big bad monsters been iced" Chilli's said as Scorch add some info "and guess what if you're thinking of using its special ability think again if you do you'll be taking 500 points of damage"

Alice took a second before considering her options "it doesn't matter by using one overlay unit his special ability lets me block Volcasaurus special ability as long as it's one the field"

Alice takes 500 damage 4000LP – 500LP = 3500LP

"Good call, leaving Volcasaurus with his special ability would have cost us more life points next turn" Astral said as Alice continued "that was the thought but with less attack points Volcasaurus will wide it out next turn not to even start with Chilli's Number, it's not over though because now I can overlay Gagaga Gardna and Skilled Dark Magician to XYZ summon again, I XYZ summon Number 39 utopia" Rank 4 ATK 2500 'okay we should be in pretty good position here, Shark has two rose tokens for defence plus with Utopia Number 45 won't be in danger yet, but should I risk an attack they still have a face down but given they already tried to stop me from attacking I might be in the clear' with this she looked over to Astral who replied without needing the question "it's risky but you should attack" he said "right Utopia attack Chills Icebergdon"

Utopia destroys Icebergdon no Damage

"With that done I place one card face down and end my turn"

Turn 7: Chills 4000LP

He drew his card seeming a bit agitated "I play three cards face down and end my turn" he said

'Alright I prevented him from summoning his number' Alice thought a bit happy "something is not right" Astral said while shark had his own thoughts but kept them to himself ready to take his turn

Turn 8: Shark 1100LP

"it's my turn I draw first, I'm activating a spell card XYZ's gift when there's at least to XYZ monsters on the field I can use XYZ gift to draw two more cards, next I summon needle sunfish" Rank 3 ATK 1500 "now I activate the surface spell card from my hand this allows me to summon one water monster from my graveyard so watch out cause Big Jaws is coming back for more" level 3 DEF 300 " and now I overlay level 3 Needle Sunfish and Big jaws, with these two monsters I build the overlay network and XYZ summon Black Ray Lancer" Rank 3 ATK 2100 "next I activate Needle Sunfish's special ability since this guy was sent to graveyard Volcasaurus loses 500 attack points, what are you waiting for Black Ray Lancer attack Volcasaurus, go shimmering spear slash"

Before the Attack hit Chills activated a trap "I activate compensation exchange, this trap card stops Black Ray Lancer attack, but now my life points get hit with Volcasaurus ATK points"

Chills 4000LP – 2000LP = 2000LP

"That's not good" Alice said worried

"he takes the hits and I dish them out" Scorch said as Chills added "that's how the leaders of the pack roll" he said a Scorch moved "I activate volcanic abyss with this can check out one of your hands and if there's a monster card it gets sent back to your deck, let's see you holding any monster cards pipsqueak"

"He means me doesn't he" Alice said as "yes he is and he is trying to prevent you from summing a monster next turn" Astral said as her cards were shown to all duellists

'Ritual Raven and Blast Magician' Shark observed

'since she has two monsters I have a choice, that Blast Magician could be a problem since it can destroy any monster and that Raven won't be an issue' Scorch thought before continuing "send Blast Magician back to your deck you can keep that useless raven for now" he said as Alice silently complied

"I'll play one card face down and end my turn"

Turn 9: Scorch 2400LP

"I draw" he said before retreating to his thoughts 'these annoyances ruined our strategy, but chills will be able to summon his Number next turn so with a monster reborn in my hand I can get Volcasaurus back next turn, then have its special ability devastate them' his thoughts were interrupted when Shark activated a Trap

"Now I'm activating icy crevasse, so now I can destroy one monster and slam you with damage equal to its attack"

"So you're trying to take out my partner and his monster are you well by activating force change I can make pompadour blizzardon and me take the fall instead"

Pompadour Blizzardon Destroyed Chills takes 1400LP of damage Chills 600LP

"Next turn I activate the volcanic eruption spell card it erupts for 500 points of damage during each of my turns, my turns over"

Turn 10: Alice 3500LP

"I draw" Alice said before she looked over to Shark 'my life points are still pretty high but sharks aren't and if we draw he'll lose pretty quick and without a partner I'll be close behind' while she was in her head astral looked at the card she pulled "we have everything we need to win" he said causing her to check the card "I just have to play this right, first I summon Ritual Raven"

"Think you can win with that push over" Scorch said confident

"You don't know it's special ability do you" Shark asked

"Of course we do that card can be used as the entire tribute for a ritual summon for a dark type monster" Chills said as the two still didn't seem troubled

"Well since it will come as no surprise I activate Black Magic Ritual using this card and Ritual Raven I can summon this card, Magician of Black Chaos" level 8 ATK 2800 "now I'll use my Magician of Black Chaos to attack Volcasaurus"

Magician of Black Chaos destroys Volcasaurus Scorch Loses 800LP

"Now Utopia Attack Chills directly"

Utopia attacks Chills 600LP – 2500LP = 0LP

"and since your partner doesn't have a move to use its sharks turn, right" Alice asked not entirely sure

Turn 11: Shark 1100LP

"Right you are now Black Ray Lancer Attack scorch directly"

Black Ray Lancer Attacks Scorch 1600LP – 2100LP = 0LP

Alice and Shark win

"I'm surprised that went as good as it did" Shark said to Alice's surprise "why is that" she asked as her appearance changed back to normal and he said "they were cheating" with this Alice thought about their moves "that would explain some things but are you sure" she asked as he nodded "why are they striped cats" Astral asked "no cheater not cheetah it's a term for someone who plays dishonestly" she explained as Astral set about to claim the number cards "observation number 6 not every dualist in this world duels with honour some are willing to comprise the spirits if it means wining" he said before witnessing the memory, which left him speechless " what happened to us chills" scorch said getting up "I don't know I don't remember nothing" chills said before they both saw Shark before running "do you really have that bad a reputation" Alice asked as he approached his bike "yeah, you might get one yourself if you hang around me too long" he said putting on his helmet "I don't mind" she said offhand as he offered her the spear "no way I'm walking home, see you in class okay" she said before he smirked and rode off


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7: The Number Hunter

When Alice awoke the next morning she still felt tired "okay no more late nights" Alice said before getting up, when she left her room Dan and Shun were eating breakfast with Dan looking a little gloomy "is something wrong Dan" Alice asked as he just stared into his bowl "he's being a drama king because I beat him yesterday" Shun said as he had to deal with it the night before "oh, well umm have you looked though your deck and made some strategies yet" Alice said trying to cheer him up "no, not yet, okay then let's get too it" Dan said getting his energy back before taking out his cards and looking though them "ah would you mind taking a look you were better at this side of things" Dan said passing his cards to Alice "alright" she said before looking though her self

After looking though for a few minutes she ran a hand though her hair "well, got any suggestions" Dan asked while she sighed "well how do I put this, your decks terribly balanced and Drago would, well is the only card you'd be winning any matches" she said worried what Dan's reaction would be "what does that matter as long as I got Drago by my side I'll be fine" Dan said while Alice didn't know whether she was relived or not, it was at that point Shun stepped in "you can't just depend on Drago to win Dan, because it's not going to work, you lost to me twice in less than an hour" at this point Dan was fuming "okay then, what's your deck like" he said before Shun relented getting deck out and giving it to Dan "I don't see what the big deal is, my deck got all these types of cards" he said before Shun corrected him "that's not all you have to look at it's how your cards can work together, why don't you let Alice explain it" at this point Dan handed the deck to Alice 'come to think of it I've only seen three of shuns cards' she thought going though it while Astral also got a look as she went, after finishing Alice spoke "I have to agree with Shun, his deck most of his monsters have effects that allows them to be Summoned rapidly to the field allowing him an easy way XYZ summon and not just Skyress but others to, I do have to say it's an interesting deck but did you have these cards from when you got here" Alice ended with the question as Shun answered "yes" as Alice she got out her cards looking though both before handed him his deck back "it is a bit odd that Shun and I got well rounded decks and Dan didn't but since it is Saturday maybe we could go to the mall, find a place where you could strengthen your deck" Alice suggested as she remembered seeing a few places that could help Dan "yeah I'm in" he responded before turning to Shun "how about it, you want to go" he asked as Shun shook his head "no thanks I got stuff to do" Shun said as the now egger Dan dragged Alice out the door "it starts today, doesn't it Shun" Skyress asked him "yes it does, my work as a number hunter begins today"

Arriving at the mall Alice started showing Dan a few places where he could find what he needed, but meanwhile Shun had gone to Heartland Tower to meet Mr. Heartland "ah Shun I'm glad you made it here okay, you did read though the package we sent you right" he said as Shun nodded in acknowledgement before continuing "today were sending you after Number 70 I believe you've already seen it right" he asked as Shun answered "I saw it my first day here" at this point Heartland passed Shun a wrist mounted device "yes that's right, now the device I just handed you will allow us to send you the details of any number cards and their owners that you can pursue, I did say the first time we meet that you're not the only one looking for them so if you get a lead I'd recommend pursuing it, secondly it also connects to a duel anchor you can use to keep your opponents from running off and lastly once you obtain Number 70 that device will allow you to activate a special field where you can perceive 1 second as 10,000 of course this field is only available to those with number cards so you'll need Number 70 first, but once you have you can use the field to duel and acquire numbers without outside interference" he finished as Shun turned to leave "is that everything" he asked before going out the door "yes, your all set to go" Heartland spoke as Shun had left by the end of his sentence

Back at the Mall Alice and Dan had finished up and were wandering towards the food court "since were here why not get something" Dan asked as Alice wasn't sure "wouldn't that be unfair I mean if we eat now, we'll be less hungry later and as a result if I make a smaller dinner without realising it Shun might not get enough to eat" Alice said as Astral spoke to her "so while humans eat, they can only eat a certain amount per day" he asked as she answered "well it differs per person but basically" unaware that Dan was having his own thoughts on the subject "okay I've got it, what if we just get Shun some and take it back and if he's not there we can put it in the fridge does sound okay" Dan said voicing his thoughts "well if your that set on it, I don't think I can Stop…." Alice's words stopped as something crashed in front of them "what the heck was that" Dan asked as their attention was drawn up ward as the police were dealing with some crazy guy with a bat "seems like some hostage situation, this is awful" Alice said as they were near a screen broadcasting the event, as it went on Astral noticed something about the thug "look there, it is a number" he said as the number 56 was on the man's shoulder "we need to get closer" Alice said as she started to make her way through the crowed to the upper levels with Dan following, as they got up a few more levels someone was flying overhead "hey look up there" one person said as another responded "it's some sort of guilder" as the chatter of the crowed continued only silenced when the figure smashed through the glass roof before everyone just stopped, as this happened Alice "what just happened everyone's frozen" she said startled as Dan didn't move either "no time is frozen" Astral said as the two heard whistling "we need to keep going" Alice said finding the situation familiar to when a brawl would occur "your right" Astral said as the two continued going through the frozen crowd, Astral being able to float could see a duel was breaking out between "hurry, a number duel is a foot" astral said as Alice was making her way up the stairs "right I'm hurrying" she said squeezing past the people on the stairs, finally reached the platform only to see the same mysterious figure flying off "who is that guy" she said in surprise not expecting an answer as time restarted "so it is over" Astral said as the police moved in on the man now on the floor after the encounter he had, Alice watched as he was wheeled out on a hospital stretcher as he kept repeating the same words "number hunter" with this Astral tried to absorb the number only to find it already gone "his number was taken" Astral said as Alice looked up to the broken ceiling as Dan's voice called out "hey Alice" at this she turned to him "don't just go running off alone do you see me doing… ah never mind, just give some warring next time okay" he asked "yeah, so take out" Alice asked to remind Dan "oh yeah let's go" he said as they started to walk away from the scene

Halfway across the city Shun was face to face with the man he meet before "I'm here for your number card, so let's duel" Shun said as the man being full consumed by the numbers power excepted the challenge "all right kid duel" he said before he and Shun both activated their duel disk and began

Turn 1: Shun 4000LP

"Frist I summon one card in face down defence mode, next I place two cards face down"

"Is that really all Shun" Skyress asked as Shun replied "his number has the ability to banish any monster so until I can summon you at a point where it won't affect you, I end my turn"

Turn 2: 4000LP

Frist I play the spell double summon this card lets me normal summon two monsters, so I'm summoning two Archfiend Soldiers" Level 4 ATK 1900 "now I overlay my two monster's to XYZ summon I summon Number 70: Malevolent Sin" Rank 4 ATK 2400 "and I'll use it to attack your monster"

Number 70: Malevolent Sin destroys Raidraptor - Fuzzy Lanius Level 4 DEF 1500 no damage

"Because you destroyed my Fuzzy Lanius I can add another one from my deck to my hand" Shun said explaining his cards effect

"it won't help because I attacked your monster Malevolent sin gains 300 ATK points and 3 ranks now I Play one card face down and end my turn"

Turn 3: Shun 4000LP

"I draw, first I I'm gonna play the spell you might find familiar double summon you already know what it does so I'm just going to summon Raidraptor - Mimicry Lanius" Level 4 ATK 1100 "and for my second summon I chose Raidraptor - Vanishing Lanius" level 4 ATK 1300 "his special ability lets me summon another Raidraptor from my hand so I chose another Vanishing Lanius and as you may guess that allows me to summon a third Vanishing Lanius who lets me summon the Fuzzy Lanius I got last turn" Level 4 ATK 500 "now I overlay my 5 level 4 monsters to XYZ summon Storm Skyress" Rank 4 DEF 2800 "now I'll use Skyress special ability to increases it's attack and defence by 300 and end my turn with a face down"

Turn 4: 4000LP

"First I'll draw next I attack with Malevolent Sin"

Malevolent Sin ATK 2700 attacks Strom Skyress DEF 2800 lose 100LP

"What why would you attack" Shun shouted across the field

"I'll tell you why so I can activate it's special ability once more and increase its Rank by 3 and ATK points by 300, but that won't matter for long because now that Malevolent Sin is Rank 10 I can use it to XYZ summon"

"what he's XYZ's summoning again" Shun said as Skyress turned to look at him "brace yourself" she said knowing what ever came next would not be good

"I summon Number 77: The Seven Sins" Rank 12 ATK 4000

"He has another number" Shun said worried 'and worse I don't have any monsters powerful enough to destroy it and I can't get around it either' he thought

"Yes you see I can summon this card using a Rank 10 XYZ monster as its materials that's where I'll end my turn"

Turn 5: Shun 4000LP

Shun drew thinking of a strategy 'even if Skyress can't be destroyed I got to think of' his train of thought paused as he looked at the card 'Magic Cylinder, but I don't even have this card' he thought before his mind recalled that Alice looked though their decks this morning 'it must be Alice's, what does this do anyway 'when attacked negate the attack and inflict damage to your opponent equal to its ATK points' wait if I use this I can win in one move, it may be risky but even if it fails Skyress can't be destroyed' Shun thought before moving "I place two cards face down and end my turn"

Turn 6: 4000LP

"I'll draw and now I'll use Number 77's special ability I can detach 2 overlay units from this card and banish all the special summoned monsters you control, and just I in case you didn't know XYZ's summoning counts as special summoning"

Strom Skyress Banished

"how, I thought you were protected from monster effects Skyress" Shun asked as Skyress incorporeal form remained "unfortunately I am only protected from effects that target me, so when he activates an ability to banish all special summoned monsters I am included" she said as Shun lamented the fact 'I would say live and learn but if he doesn't fall for magic cylinder or has a way to destroy it the game is over, he has one face down card plus whatever he has in his hand, I was idiotic to think I knew what he would do and how this was going to play out but in the end this all comes down to chance' Shun thought waiting for his opponents next move

The next moments went by in a flash as Number 77 attacked and Shun activated magic cylinder dealing 4000 damage wining the duel and Shun claimed his prize reaching out retiring the number cards as the man's hair turned white and he did not move from the ground "Shun are you Okay" Skyress asked "I'm fine, it can't be helped after all" Shun said crushing the orb in his hand to reveal the two number cards before he turned to go back

Arriving back Shun found Alice and Dan eating some type of take out "welcome back, we got you some as well it's on the table" Alice greeted while Dan kept eating, at this point Shun grabbed the bag from the table along with the drink before pulling out some fries and started eating

When Dan finished first, he was quick on his feet as he was ready to go "alright Shun you and me right now" he said as Shun sighed "not right now" he said as Dan turned to Alice "well how about it" he asked as she shook her head before something came to mind "how about tomorrow we got an arcade, you should be able to find all sorts of duellists" she reasoned as Dan agreed "that's a great idea lets head over there first thing, right Drago" turning to Drago as he finished "agreed going against all different opposition is a good way for your skills to improve" he agreed as Alice had something else to say "if you want go tomorrow then we should head to bed" she said "what why it's only round 7:30" Dan said as he was adamantly opposed to it "well it opens from what I heard around six and if you want head in as soon as it's opened we need to leave here at 5:20 in the morning" Alice said as Dan changed his tune "well I'm off to bed wake me when it's time for breakfast" Dan said walking to the room he shared with Shun "so do you want come" Alice asked Shun "no, make sure he doesn't do anything to reckless, there are dangerous people around" he said as Alice headed in for her room "I'm sure we'll be fine good night" Alice said before closing the door "why did you stone wall him like that" Astral asked "he's just being over cautious, besides we still have work to do tonight" Alice answered as Astral realised what she meant "that other person acquiring number cards" with this Alice nodded "I wanted a strategy ready for when we eventually have to face him because sooner or later we will have to" she said as their conversation continued with Alice looked over her cards for combo's and strategies "of course if our objectives are the same we will have to face him sometime in the future, so what did you have in mind" he asked as she answered "well since he's looking for number cards his strategy probably revolves around them and he most likely already has a few in his passion as well, going into a duel both him and us have no way to tell what a number's special ability is, so using cards that negate abilities would be an idea" Alice said as Astral listened "so you believe he would have cards like Number 45, yes that is a viable option but is that all you had in mind" he said as Alice nodded "well actually I wasn't planning on using any number cards or an XYZ monster in general" Alice said unsure "yes that would be a way around an offensive designed against number cards" he said as the two continued for another hour before sleeping

Meanwhile Shun was still awake as he was waiting for the chance to be alone to report back activating the his watch "This is Shun there were complications he had two number cards but I acquired Number 70 and Number 77" he said "excellent Shun you really are good, I must say though it took you a while to report in" Heartland said over the line "sorry about that I live with other people from my world and I don't want to get them involved" Shun said his voice conveying a serious tone "I understand, of course this is dangerous work if something comes up I'll send you the details" Heartland said before ending the conversation from his end

The next morning Alice and Dan headed off to the arcade in the morning while Shun slept in drained from the previous days duel

"Did I rock or did I rock" Dan said as they left the arcade 12 hours later "I have to say you were on fire, I think you only lost 4 matches" Alice said as Dan was ridding the hype "yeah I was awesome and who would complain about 11 wins, I swear nothing could ruin today" Dan said before it started to rain "nope not even that" he said smiling over to Alice "glad to see" she said as they came to an intersection as Dan ran over to the other side with Alice took a second to look only spotting a truck far down the road and with that Alice started to cross before "Alice" Astral called as the truck was about to hit her

Alice closed her eyes a moment before getting hit, then nothing happened "Alice, are you okay" Astral said as she opened her eyes to notice everything was frozen "I'm fine Astral but this" she said as Astral already knew "it's just like before, we should go" he said as Alice ran to check on Dan "it doesn't seem he's hurt but that truck shouldn't have been that close was it speeding, I can't leave Dan here but if I stay I'll" Alice stopped speaking as she and Astral heard whistling, before a figure appeared in front of them "there's no time, run" Astral said as Alice turned to run before rope made of energy attached to her arm "don't think you can run, from here on out your stuck on this field" he said pulling his arm back dragging her with it "we can't separate" he added "this is not good" Alice thought aloud as the stranger said "no it is good because now you have no choice, now you and I will duel for numbers" with this Astral said "you can do this" which eased Alice a bit "I thought you wanted to run away" she said "that was when I thought you could run, because we have never faced an enemy like this " Astral answered honestly 'Astral's right, even with a strategy this will be the toughest opponent I've faced' Alice thought before their Duel began

Alice was surprised as not only did her clothing switch to her duel form but her opponent did something similar with his 'Photon transformation'

Turn 1: Kite 4000LP

"There is no escape now my friend you and your number will be hunted down, now allow me to go first won't you, I draw, first I activate the spell Photon veil from my hand, with this card I get to send three light attribute monsters from my hand to my deck and then I can add three light attribute monsters from my deck to my hand" he said picking three off the same card while Alice and Astral waited for his next move

"next I'm gonna activate the power of the spell card Photon lead which lets me summon one of the monsters I just added to my hand in attack mode, and the monster I summon is Daybreaker" ATK 1700 Level 4 "but there's more when this card is successfully summoned I can summon another one from my hand, so that's two Daybreaker's and now the second one's ability activates, so welcome to the field Daybreaker number three"

"three monsters just like that" Alice said in shock at how fast his actions were "and each one share the same level of 4" Astral said leaving Alice with one conclusion 'he's going to XYZ summon a number card for sure'

"I overlay my three level 4 Daybreaker's to build the overlay network, I XYZ summon Number 10: Illumiknight" ATK 2400 Rank 4

"I knew he'd be good but a number on his first turn and he didn't even have to use his normal summon" Alice said thankful he couldn't attack yet

"that's right and I'm still not done because now I play Illumiknight ability with it I can use an overlay unit to discard one card from my hand to draw one new card from my deck, then light serpent's special ability activates, you see when light serpent's sent to the graveyard from my hand it's then summoned to the field" ATK 1200 Level 3 "next I'll bring out the monster plasma ball" ATK 900 Level 3

"That's another two monsters with the same level" Alice said as the realization dawned upon her as Astral voiced her thought "he likely has more than one number" with this Alice agreed

"I now overlay light serpent and plasma ball, I can once again build the overlay network, I XYZ summon Number 20: Giga-Brilliant" ATK 1800 Rank 3

"I knew it was coming but it's still shocking that he summoned two number cards in one turn" Alice said

"Now the hunt truly begins" he said "now I'll end my turn"

"What a move ending your turn right on" the robot behind him said before he scolded it "that's not a move gear head"

Turn 2: Alice 4000LP

"This won't be easy dealing with two number cards" Astral said as Alice drew looking at her hand 'and to make matters worse I've never even played these cards before' Alice thought looking at the monsters in her hand "okay first I summon Gagaga Sister" ATK 200 Level 2 "and her effect lets me add one Gagaga monster from deck to my hand so I pick Gagaga clerk and when there's a Gagaga monster on my field her special ability lets me summon her" ATK 400 Level 2 "and now I can use Gagaga Sister's other special ability which lets me add her level to Gagaga clerk and all monsters I control become that level so now I have two Level 4 monsters" she said stopping for a minute looking over to Astral "do it" he said as she continued "I overlay my two Level 4 monsters to build the overlay network and XYZ summon Number 39: Utopia" ATK 2500 Rank 4 Alice looked over to Astral as he considered there next play "we still don't know Giga-Brilliant's special ability holding off on attacking until then and play that trap cards face down" he finished as Alice agreed "to end I'll play one cards face down" Alice said as Astral nodded waiting for Kite's next move

Turn 3: Kite 4000LP

"Ah the number has appeared, right then I activate Illumiknight special ability again and use an overlay unit to discard the card I drew and replace it with a new one" he said as smirked at the card he drew "now I play Giga-Brilliant's ability, by using one overlay unit Giga-Brilliant gains 300 ATK points, and now it's time I tribute Giga-Brilliant and Illumiknight, goodbye you two, and hello to galaxy eyes photon dragon" ATK 3000 Level 8

"I don't like the where this is going" Alice said as Kite had just gotten rid of two number cards "I agree while that dragon does have more attack points that the other two the fact he got rid of two number cards just to summon it is concerning" Astral said

"Get ready to meet defeat because my Galaxy Eyes is ready to seek and destroy, now galaxy eyes attack Utopia"

"Activate Utopia's ability" Astral said but before Alice could do it Kite made another move

"And now Galaxy Eyes special ability activates and both our monsters are banished"

"well that's weird" Alice said while Astral was as unsure as her "we may not have Utopia but at least that dragon's gone" Alice said still not sure why he would summon a dragon just to get rid of it 'is this how he deals with Number cards or does that dragon come back'

"And now that the battle is over both our monsters return and if the monster Galaxy Eyes battled with was an XYZ monster Galaxy Eyes absorbs that monster's overlay units and gains 500 ATK points for each" kite said as both monsters returned "and that end my turn"

Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon 3000 + (500 x 2) = 4000 ATK

Turn 4: Alice 4000LP

'I get it now even though Utopia's back his overlay units are gone and to add insult to injury Galaxy Eye's attack has been boosted to 4000, come to think of it this is probably his go too card and it's perfect against numbers' Alice thought looking at her face down card "I should have used it when I had a chance" she said doubting her choice as Astral disagreed "no, while it's true the recall Trap card could have negated the effect and destroyed his monster, with the information we had I would not have used it either" he said as Alice drew for her turn 'okay I have mirror force and negate attack in my hand if I play them both I can at worst negate the attack and at best destroy his dragon and since he has nothing in his hand he's got no way to negate them, but if utopia's in defence mode I won't take damage either way' with that Alice began to shift utopia to DEF mode "it's a risky move" Astral said as Alice stopped to listen "he went as far as getting rid of his Number cards so he could summon Galaxy Eyes, he is sure to have a plan in place for you playing a number in deference" Astral said as Alice ended "I throw two cards face down and end my turn"

Turn 5: Kite 4000LP

"My turn I draw, I Summon forth Photon Cerberus and when Cerberus is let off his leash your trap cards are put on them" he said as chains formed around both of Alice's face down cards

"Oh no" Astral said as both he and Alice were worried with the turn of events "so I can't negate your attack" she said letting her strategy slip

"That's right which means you won't be avoiding the damage to your life points, now Galaxy Eyes Attack"

Galaxy Eyes Photon Dragon 4000 attacks Utopia 2500 ATK Alice Takes 1500 damage, Utopia not destroyed

Alice 4000LP – 1500LP =2500LP

"that's not good if this keeps up were not gonna last much longer" Alice said as the robot piped up "that's right and then your number card and your soul go bye bye" it said as Alice took in the information "my soul, wait is that happened back at the" Alice stopped as her own thoughts interrupted

"That's right once the doom card is played the battle is over"

"The doom card"

"Yes Dan the doom card, once you throw it down it sends the defeated Byakugan into another dimension for eternity"

"You're kidding"

"The doom dimension, he's right human a Bakugan can never return from the doom dimension there we met our eternal demise, nothing is feared more"

At the memory Alice's hand started trembling as Kite's wrath turned to his robot "you tin twip, I've got this girl on the ropes and you bring that up, what is wrong with you" he yelled as his robot backed up apologising

"If he knows we have a trap card waiting I doubt he'll Attack with that dragon without a plan, in the meantime if we take out Photon Cerberus we can do some damage to his life points" Astral said before turning to Alice for input, however when he did she was breathing heavily as her whole body was trembling 'this isn't good' Astral thought before speaking "we haven't lost yet, we can still turn this around' however his word were unnoticed as Alice was stuck in her own head 'after everything after hurting so many people as Masquerade and sending countless Byakugan to their demise, maybe I deserve to lose' she thought dropping to her knees "Alice" Astral called destressed at her condition

"Great she can't even draw for her turn, now that you've freaked her out Orbital" Kite said in a mix of anger at Orbital 7 and pity for her 'great now I have to wait until this girl makes her move, which in her state might take some time I suppose I can wait her out until she makes her move' he thought before he felt something wrong "incoming message Master Kite" he said causing Kite to look over as Orbital 7 projected a scene of a young boy collapsed "hart" he said distressed "we'll finish this later, but now I must leave" he said severing rode before addressing orbital "come on, we must hurry" he said as orbital complied Turing into a motorcycle, before the two drove away as time returned to normal as Alice's clothes went back to normal and the rain starting to fall again and the truck passing centimetres away from Alice's face, drenching her with water as it passed "hey slow down" Dan shouted at the Truck as he turned to Alice who had passed out "Alice" he said going over to her "is she okay" Drago asked as Dan responded "she's fine, thank goodness, I guess I better take her back" Dan said picking up Alice shifting her on to his back

An hour later the two arrived back with Alice still unconscious "what happened" Shun asked worried as they came through the door "a speeding truck almost hit Alice I guess she panicked and passed out because the next time I saw her she was like this" Dan explained as Shun was Quick speak "let's get her to her room and let her sleep" he said as Dan complied and they left her in her room "what now" Dan asked "well we should do the same but if she hasn't woken up by morning then we shouldn't wake her up, if it comes to that I'll tell the school she's absent okay" Shun said looking over to Skyress as she nodded in approval of the plan "okay that makes sense" Dan said not wanting to wait but knowing Shun was right about letting her recover first


End file.
